By Peter Getman

A brand. What is it?

Let’s start by defining what a brand is.

Simply put, a brand is “the idea” inside your target market’s mind about your product, company or service.

To effectively achieve this you must refine, define and focus the concept down to a simple unique value proposition that differentiates your product. More importantly, you must be near certain that the concept will move the American masses to adopt/purchase your product over a competitor’s product. You must refine and focus the brand concept into a specific idea to seed in the target client/customer’s mind.

This process of narrowing the focus of the brand into a clear, concise, tangible and differentiating concept of value is often referred to as brand strategy, others call it brand positioning but in the end it’s simply what to do, where to start.

The end goal is to reach the point in time when your product equals your intended concept of value idea inside the minds of your target market. For example, all MP3 players are iPods today. Jeep, Red Bull, Xerox, Google, Facebook, Charmin and Vlassic all started by narrowing the focus of their brand into a laser beam. Jeep is the convertible 4 wheel drive. Red Bull is the energy drink. Xerox is a copy. Google is search. Facebook is social networking. Soft tissue paper is only Charmin. Vlassic is the crisp pickle. All of these brand names equal the concept of value inside their target consumer’s minds and therefore own the market category itself.

To illustrate, here are a few of our client brands poised for this success:

Purple – Life’s Superdrink.™
Our recommended brand strategy and supporting brand position for Purple is to leverage the mass international consumption of Superfoods. Purple. Life’s Superdrink. has created a new market category within the beverage market. In the noise of energy drinks, this is differentiating and leverages a consumer trend in Superfood consumption. The brand idea of Life’s Superdrink is believable, tangible and sustainable over time because the product delivers — it actually is the healthiest drink on the planet. Now Purple = Superdrink, much like Red Bull = energy drink.

OhMiBod® – Music Vibrator®
Perhaps the hottest Apple iPod and iPhone accessory in the international market place is our client Suki LLC. Together, we coined and launched a new brand concept, a music vibrator, which is burning as hot as wildfire in 30 countries in as many months. This differentiating brand idea is recognized internationally on over 500 blogs. The brand’s promise of “Feel The Music®” emotionally supports the new market category of music vibrators, which our client now and forever will own, internationally.

DoubleCheckMD.com® Your medications. Their interactions.®
Together with our brilliant client, we harness the brand strategy of this brand concept in the brand name and brand position messaging to launch an entirely new market category within destination healthcare website brands. It is a tight and comprehensive focus on your medications and their interactions in you. With over 25% of Americans on 4 or more medications, this is a valuable market category they now own.

Natural Rocks – Cocktail Ice Cubes®
Isn’t all ice made for cocktails? That’s what we thought when we first met the founder, a very cool guy making ice cubes from spring water. But spring water is really the feature…so what is the benefit? It’s clearly a must-have ingredient for the $15 dollar single malt scotch or the perfect martini. They now own the newly formed market category of cocktail ice cubes and their year-over-year same store sales spike was too massive to utter here (you either wouldn’t believe me or you’ll think we’re bragging). The next time you see this brand in the store, try it, you’ll notice the difference .

Ledama Olikena
People are brands too. Ledama is running to be the next President of Kenya. He recently retained us as his agency of record to craft the communication strategy behind his beliefs for a healthy, happy and prosperous Kenya. Like product brands, Ledama is a brand. He is forming a highly focused idea inside the voter’s minds. True Change. Ledama is true change for Kenyan Youth; which makes up 65% of Kenya’s population.

Todi – Après Athletics Footwear
Todi Originals are what you wear to and from the locker room. It’s the footwear worn by hard charging athletes in training. The Todi brand symbolizes the spirit found deep inside aggressive souls. Our go-to-market strategy carves out a market category in the footwear market, soon to be owned by the Todi brand.

If a “brand” is an idea [a concept of value idea] that your client has about your product, company or service, then “branding” is the process of forming this idea in their minds.

The process of branding an idea inside your target market’s mind can be simplified into two primary communications types:

1. Your client’s/customer’s actual experience with your product itself
2. Your outbound marketing communications to this client/customer before, during and after the sale of the product.

The sum of these two communication types create one idea surrounding your product which ultimately defines your brand. This needs to be a planned event. The process of crafting these experiences is branding.

Review all aspects of the customer’s actual experience with your product, for example:

• The user experience of the product itself
• The tactical feel of the product
• The visual appeal of the product
• Product usage instructions
• The way your customer support phone is answered and how the call is handled
• The first impression with your product, company entrance, vehicles, sales team, etc.
• The packaging, internal and external
• Timely and helpful customer service
• Hassle free warranty
• Product performance
• The purchasing experience

Essentially it is the sum of every single customer touch point they may experience with your product, including the company, service and employees. The sum of these experiences must pay off, reinforce and deliver the focused concept of value your brand aims to “be” in your customer’s mind. At every possible touch point, consider a human’s five senses [sight, sound, smell, taste and touch] and use this as a proactive opportunity to deliver a brand message that supports your intended concept of value.

The outbound marketing communications to your client/customer before, during and after the sale of the product need to be laser focused and deliver the brand’s intended concept of value.

To deliver the intended concept of value, follow this branding process:

1. 
   
2. First craft your brand’s concept of value into two distinct clear, concise and memorable messages; the brand tagline and the brand slogan.
   • The brand tagline captures the business you’re in, your difference, and why your target market should care about your value. It provides the foundation of your communications by which all marketing programs aim to make this statement believable, tangible and valued.
   • The brand slogan typically tugs on the emotions of your market and presents itself in a punchy and memorable manner.

   Together, along with your brand name itself, this messaging combination delivers your promise of unique and superior value and positions it for intellectual consumption.
   

3. Next make your brand position believable and tangible to the consumer/client. These outbound communications are key to shortening the sales process. In the most basic form, this is the primary job of the brand story.
   • The brand story is a short readable document of 2-3 paragraphs which describes your company history; how your company arrived at its current position and the vision for your excellence. As such, it validates and makes believable (to your customer) your ability to deliver on the claims made in your brand tagline and brand slogan.

   
   

4. Next employ a weave of the key outbound communications which include:
   • Press coverage – When an editor says your brand value is true, it must be.
   • Blog coverage – The new voice of the American people is thriving and vital to establishing your brand position.
   • Social Media – The fastest way to phenomenal brand message believability is get a Facebook homerun. Step up to the plate. There are hundreds of social networks, be alive in the ones where your next evangelists are living.
   • Brand leadership advertising – Once your brand position is awarded a true statement in the blogosphere, social media and main stream press, it is vital to parrot that recognition in leadership advertising.
   • Web Video – demonstrations dovetailed with customer satisfaction testimonials are the classic manner to deliver a believable brand promise. Web video is the new delivery medium and is a must in today’s market.
   • Self Service Webcast and Webinars are today’s way to provide initial product demonstrations without the cost of sales travel and are a important step in establishing a believable and tangible value proposition.
   • Search Engine Optimization – When a customer searches your brand’s concept of value, do you come up on 1st page of Google? If so, it will go a long way towards being delivering a believable message. After all, if Google thinks your brand equals that search concept, it must be true.
   • Websites and Microsites – Craft a microsite around a specific customer demographic, or specific problem environment that your brand specifically solves. If there are 14 different customer demographics and 8 different and specific problems your brand solves, you need that many microsites to communicate your brand message in a clear, concise and memorable manner that is personally-relevant to each of these buyer demographics.
   • This list, of course, goes on… you get the idea.

Once you’ve crafted your brand position to be intellectually consumed in a clear, concise, and memorable manner that is believable, tangible and personally-relevant to each individual target buyer demographic, then you need to make your product easily buyable.

This is our proven process, one that we stand behind. If you’d like to learn more please connect with us in the blog comments, on Twitter, on Facebook, by email or phone- or, of course, keep reading this blog.